States General

States General, also spelled States-General, Dutch Staten-Generaal, body of delegates representing the United Provinces of the Netherlands (Dutch Republic; 1579–1795). It is not to be confused with the present Netherlands parliament of the same name.

The States General was instituted in the 15th century by the ruling dukes of Burgundy and was retained by the succeeding Habsburg rulers. The States General was convened on the command of the central government for the purpose of coordinating the assessment of provincial subsidies for the ruler’s treasury. It was made up of deputies of the provincial States (assemblies). Originally designed to facilitate control by a foreign ruler, the States General after a time became an important vehicle for the awakening of the Netherlands’ national consciousness.

During the revolt of the Netherlands against Spanish rule (1568–1609), the States General met without Spanish sanction in 1576 and became the central organ of a general Netherlands union; many sovereignprerogatives were then arrogated to it. As defections by the southern provinces and the advance of Spanish arms reduced the number of rebelling provinces, those remaining entered into a new pact, the 1579 Union of Utrecht, which clearly defined the powers of the States General vis-à-vis the provincial States. As the central organ of the republic founded by this union, it was to have responsibility for foreign and military affairs; no important national decision, however, could be taken without the unanimous vote of the seven provincial States, the delegates of which composed the States General. Thus, each province of the Dutch Republic was sovereign; no part of that sovereignty was given over to the States General. Internally, the States General had responsibility for the daily administration and taxation of the Generality lands (those areas of the republic that lay outside the seven provinces and that had been secured against Spanish reconquest).

Because of the great provincial particularism in the two centuries of the republic’s existence, the States General functioned smoothly only when the integrity of the state was threatened or when one of the contending political forces—the States of Holland or the stadtholder, the chief provincial executive—gained ascendancy. Even then, however, unanimity in the States General was not guaranteed; occasionally majority decisions were unconstitutionally acted upon.

When the old republic collapsed in 1795 and gave way to the more democratic Batavian Republic, the States General was retained for a year. It was replaced by a National Assembly in 1796.

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